Four Women Promoted and Granted Tenure at Colby College in Waterville, Maine

Colby College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in Waterville, Maine, has announced the promotion of six faculty members to the rank of associate professor. All six were also awarded tenure. Four of the promotions went to women.

Sarah Braunstein was promoted to associate professor of English and creative writing. She joined the Colby faculty in 2016 as a visiting assistant professor, having held similar positions at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and the University of Southern Maine. Braunstein is the author of two novels Sweet Relief of Missing Children (W.W. Norton, 2011) and Bad Animals (W.W. Norton 2024). She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she majored in English and theater. She holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa and a master of social work degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Nadia El-Shaarawi was appointed associate professor of global studies. She is an anthropologist who studies global public health and migration. She is co-editor of Migration and Health: Challenging the Borders of Belonging, Care and Policy (Berghahn Books, 2022) and author of the forthcoming book Collateral Damage: Iraqi Refugees, Unknowing and the Everyday Lives of Empire. She joined the Colby faculty in 2015. Dr. El-Shaarawi is a graduate of McMaster University in Canada. She holds a master’s degree in medical anthropology from the University of Oxford in England, and a master of public health degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Arisa White was named an associate professor of English and creative writing. She joined the faculty in 2018. White is the author of Who’s Your Daddy? (Augery Books, 2021) and co-editor of Home is Where You Queer Your Heart (Foglifter Press, 2021). White is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she majored in creative writing and literature. She holds a master of fine arts degree in English poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Nora Youngs was promoted to associate professor of mathematics at Colby College. She works at the intersection of mathematics and neuroscience. Dr. Youngs, who joined the college’s faculty in 2016,  has helped create an entirely new subfield of mathematical biology by developing mathematical insight into how the brain encodes information that animals use to determine their location. Dr. Youngs is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Nebraska.